PHOTO: The view down the aisle and some of the vendors earlier in January at the Colorado Convention Center for the International Sportmens Exposition

THOSE THE WOLVES PULLED DOWN

Originally Published the Week of January 19, 2010 in Western Outdoor News




At the time you're reading this, we'll probably be in Sacramento at the California State Fairgrounds in our booth talking fishing with everyone at the International Sportsmens Expo. Great to see so many folks. So far, we've been in Denver and also San Mateo just outside of San Francisco.

On a sad note, you can tell it's been a tough year for alot of outfitters, guides, charter operators and vendors. So many booths are just gone. So many friends who run operations from Mexico to Alaska and Canada to South Africa either canceled or we hear are out of business. Poof. Good friends that the wolves pulled down. Like the Garth Brooks song. Like so many others in this economy.

I hadn't expected that. Normally, when we hit the road to visit all of these fishing and hunting shows we get to visit our own clients and hopefully sign up new ones. However, it's also an opportunity to visit with other vendors in the same businesses.

We don't see each other for a year as we all run off to our various operations and points on the compass. Lodges in the Arctic. Fishing camps in the Amazon. Turkey callers in Kansas. Salmon charters on the Kenai and yes, other Baja operators as well.

Instead, it's obvious that there are fewer of us out there on the convention room floor. That's a shame. Not for our sakes. That's sad enough as it is, but most of us know we're knuckleheads for trying to stake our living on the whims of nature, weather, fish and animals. It's not an easy life. Nothing is guaranteed. And most of the guys and gals I know in this business are as resilient, tough and resourceful as any I have ever met.

That's why they do what they do. They take people fishing in big waters; tramp through the woods leading pack animals with rifles on their shoulders; lead white-water survival camps in the Himalayas or scuba dive with sharks in Baja. They cut trees to build wilderness lodges; know how to use chewing gum to fix a boat engine; actually do know how to construct an igloo and rub two sticks together to make a fire!

The real tragedy is actually on the other end. Western Outdoor News Editor, Pat McDonell wrote about it several issues ago when he commented about the loss of Los Angeles Times outdoor writer, Pete Thomas and other outdoor writers who have had their jobs eliminated recently.

We're not only losing our outdoors. We're losing our access to the outdoors. We're losing the writers who created and reported the visions and kept us in touch from our offices and homes. And, judging from what I see at the outdoor shows, we're also losing the operators who put us at ground zero as well.

For so many of us who grew up in the last few decades, the outdoors and the outdoor lifestyles we found as our recreation were part of our psyche. Our dads and parents took us out because that's what their parents did for them.

I understand the tragedy and economics and the times in which we live.

But as Pat brought up, the outdoors are an important part of who we are and, at least for many in my generation and the generations preceding, it helped formulate who we are and what we became.

I wanted to be Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett. I can still sing the theme songs to those TV shows! I wanted to get in that Range Rover with Marlin Perkins on Mutual of Omaha and make Jim get out and get chased by the charging rhino.

I wanted to be dive with Lloyd Bridges in "Sea Hunt." I read Field and Stream and cut out pictures when I was in grade school. I did a "show and tell" in front of Sister Jane and my 3rd grade class taken from a story in Sports Afield Magazine. I read John Steinbeck's the "Log from the Sea of Cortez" when I was in 8th grade. I used to actually save and chart the dock counts from the Los Angeles Times.

I remember my dad telling me that if I did my homework, he'd take me to the Fred Hall Show in Long Beach. I saw the booths and all the places I promised myself I would go fishing "when I grew up."

And now kids get a daily dose of reality shows and computer-generated sludge. The outdoors are defined by the how many bad guys you shoot in a jungle video game or the "reality" of such shows where contestants "survive" bogus dangers on deserted islands and real dangers from scheming team members (with cameras watching every ugly emotion) or how frightened you can be eating a handful of bugs. What does THAT teach them?

A generation is losing it's heroes. Roy Rogers where are you? Better yet, where are you Captain Joe? Hunter Bob? Rod the River Guide? My kids want to come out and play. They need to come out and play. The wolves are taking away our inspiration.







Jonathan Roldan is the Baja Editor of Western Outdoor News and his column appears every other week. He can be reached in La Paz at: riplipboy@tailhunter-international.com

REFLECTIONS ON A NEW YEAR

Originally Published In Western Outdoor News The Week of January 6, 2019


Having been down here now since the mid-90's (where did the time go?) and running fishing and diving, I'm often asked what a think about the future here. More folks moving in. More fishing and boat traffic. More construction. More condos. More marinas planned, etc. etc.

As a businessman, sure, we all like the business and it's good to have jobs for folks. However, as a Baja rat, like many of you, it's hard not to be skeptical of the future. Heck, my outlook is downright dour sometimes.

They say you can't fight city hall and after seeing so much waste over the years, stupid politics and greed, one has a tendency to throw their arms up in frustration. You smack your head against a brick wall and scream, "What are they thinking?"

Actually, my complaints probably sound like the same complaints you have up in the U.S. about resource and recreation management so you understand my wringing of hands.

But the advent of a new year is often reason for perspective, at least on several fronts. Maybe, just maybe, there's some hope and some things to applaud.

On a personal level at ground zero, I gotta tell you this "catch-and-release" thing that seemed so alien several years ago seems to have caught on a bit.

Not only am I hearing more fishermen asking about it but, in some cases, demanding it. Or, in others asking to only take "some for dinner" or a small amount home.

"So much used to just sit in the freezer, why do I need so much fish?"

With each year, I see more of our clients releasing smaller fish or females as well. Wholesale slaughter of fish just for the sake of catching fish and then stacks of fish on the beach for bragging rights, doesn't seem so important these days. Of course, I'm speaking in generalities, but there's a glimmer that I never saw in the past.

Even more importantly, at least as far as sportfishing is concerned, more Mexican captains, especially the younger ones are more receptive to releasing fish; trying different techniques; lighter tackle and not overfishing certain areas.

It has to start with the captains. Many anglers don't understand the delicate balance on the shoulders of a captain. His mandate is to find fish and catch fish. The "old school" mindset equated bigger tips in direct proportion to bloody carcasses in the fish box. He has to make a living. The better he does, the bigger the tips and the more trips he'll get.

But now, captains are being judged with sometimes different standards. Numbers are important, but a captain has to know when enough is enough...from a legal perspective in respecting limits; to making sure his clients have a good time; to knowing when the clients want to release fish often communicated with difficulty because of the language differences.

It's hard to say "oops!" once the gaff is struck. It's hard to take back a club to the head. Dead fish don't swim away.

In the past, even when clients didn't want to keep all their fish, captains often lobbbied clients for the discarded catch for their own use or for sale to market. Bottom line is that there's alot of conflict going on when a captain takes you out fishing, especially for the first time.

While many of the older captains I speak with base their decisions and daily fishing strategies on purely economic variables and knowing how much to do so that it generates the most tip money, with younger captains, I am hearing other things. It's heartening to hear things like "environment," "protecting the fishery," and "responsibility."

As one captain told me, "My family has always fished. I come from many generations of fisherman. I do not need a scientist to tell me that the ocean is not as good as it used to be. But I want my sons and their children to have the ocean. They can be fishermen if they want (He laughingly said he hoped they would go to school and get good office jobs!), but I want them to still have the ocean as I knew it. We cannot kill everything."

That's encouraging on so many levels. There's hope.

Bring on the new year. Feliz ano nuevo everyone.








Jonathan Roldan is the Baja Editor of Western Outdoor News and his column appears every other week. He can be reached in La Paz at: riplipboy@tailhunter-international.com